CALGARY, Alberta -- There was a lot of hand-wringing coming into this season -- understandably -- on whether Ryan Graves would rebound in Year 2 in a Penguins uniform.
Skating on the left side of the third pairing all season to this point, Graves' partners have either been a rookie defenseman in Jack St. Ivany or Ryan Shea, who had spent his entire three-year professional career in the AHL before joining the Penguins ... and is tasked with playing on his off side when with Graves.
None of that sounds like the recipe for success on paper. But as Graves and Shea have been together on that third pairing in the last two games, they've managed to make themselves the least of the Penguins' worries to this point. Actually.
Here are the top three defensemen in a number of on-ice metrics at five-on-five, with the percentage representing the Penguins' control of those metrics when that defenseman is on the ice:
Shot attempts
1. Shea (57.14%)
2. Graves (56.11%)
3. Marcus Pettersson (54.69%)
Unblocked shot attempts
1. Shea (58.14%)
2. Graves (57.03%)
3. Pettersson (53.68%)
Shots on goal
1. Shea (56.52%)
2. Graves (54.65%)
3. Pettersson (50.96%)
Goals
1. Graves (62.50%)
2. Erik Karlsson (47.37%)
3. Pettersson (40.91%)
Regarding chances and shots when a particular pair is on the ice, the Graves-Shea pairing has seen the most success in controlling play, to the point where Graves is the only defenseman on the Penguins' roster who has been on the ice for more goals for than against at five-on-five (5-3).
With those results, the next question one should have would be regarding deployment. Surely, Graves and Shea have just been deployed in a more offensive role, right?
The opposite, actually. Here's how Penguins defenseman rank in terms of the percentage of their shifts that start in the offensive zone, in order of least offensive zone starts:
1. Graves (31.58%)
2. Shea (33.33%)
3. Pettersson (40%)
Shea and Graves start their shifts in their own end more often than the offensive zone, more often than any other defensemen. But they manage to turn that into the best results of any defensemen. It's obviously a limited sample size this far into the season, but it's an encouraging one.
Graves and St. Ivany had success together in their brief stint as a pairing toward the end of last season, and they looked fine in the regular season. But that hasn't quite carried over to the regular season. In the aforementioned metrics, St. Ivany ranks seventh -- dead last -- in shot attempt share a 47.52%, the only defenseman below 50% at five-on-five. He ranks next-to-last in unblocked shot attempt share at 47.57%, above only Matt Grzelcyk's (46.33%). He ranks last in shots on goal share (43.84%), and has been on the ice for more goals against (five) than for (three).
None of that is shared with the intention of burying St. Ivany, or suggesting that he can't carve out a role in the lineup this season. But in this brief sample size this season, the overall positive results on the third pairing have been unique to when Graves is with Shea.
I asked Mike Sullivan after Tuesday's morning skate what his impressions of the Graves-Shea pairing have been.
"I think there's been some good and there's been some not so good," Sullivan said. "I think you could say the same for all of our players, for that matter. When (Shea) is playing that off side, that's not easy for him, it's not his natural position. There's been moments where they've been really solid defending the rush really well with their gaps, establishing their gaps early off that offensive blue line, making the entries difficult, using their size and their reach. I think they've had moments when they've been really good at our net front, and then there's been others where we've got away from it. We're just looking for consistency of their game and simplicity of their game, and that's when they're at their best."
For all the good that Shea and Graves have done together, St. Ivany will get a chance again at some point ... and it looks like that might be as soon as Tuesday's game against the Flames. It's not a perfect rule, but generally the healthy scratches stay out on the ice longer than the game group in the morning skate. St. Ivany came off the ice early, and Shea stayed out late with Valtteri Puustinen. That would suggest that Shea will sit, and St. Ivany will play on the third pairing with Graves.
At least for now, the Penguins' third pairing with Graves and Shea hasn't been a problem, and has actually been pretty good in their role despite just about everyone else struggling defensively more often than not. It's certainly worth giving St. Ivany another opportunity in the near future, but Graves-Shea remain a pretty decent fallback option on that third pair.
